Donald Trump gestures as he reads from a teleprompter during a speech in Virginia Beach on July 11th. — Photograph: Steve Helber/Associated Press.

IT IS not true that the 2016 presidential election is being rigged in any meaningful sense of that word. If you extend a definition of “rigged” to include such loose concepts as “members of the political establishment hoping outsiders are unsuccessful” or “campaign operatives using common political practices to improve the chances of electoral success,” then, maybe. But that's not the way that Donald Trump, the Republican nominee for president, means it.

In Trump's estimation, the campaign is rigged in the traditional sense of the expression: nefarious forces are seeking to commit voter fraud in Pennsylvania, the media is conspiring with a wealthy Mexican to make up lies about him, Hillary Clinton is doing the bidding of a cabal of international bankers. On Saturday, he implied that Clinton had been given the questions during the first debate, a laughable conspiracy theory that flourished briefly in the wake of her strong performance on the stage that night. But for Trump, sinking in the polls faster than Clinton is rising, any conspiracy theory that undercuts his opponent is one worth sharing.

His allies and supporters — like Senator Jeff Sessions (Republican-Alabama) and David Clarke, a member of law enforcement in Wisconsin — agree.

The accusations outlined above are false. In-person voter fraud is essentially nonexistent; the idea that New York Times reporters are acting at the behest of a partial stakeholder in their employer is ridiculous; accusations that Clinton is seeking to undermine the United States to the benefit of international bankers is a strain of thought evolved from the worst anti-Semitic claims.

But many Trump supporters think I'm wrong — or intentionally lying as part of that same conspiracy. The beauty of a conspiracy theory is precisely that everything proves it: evidence and the lack of evidence, the latter proving the coverup. At a rally in Cincinnati, Trump fans told reporters from The Boston Globe that they were willing to stake out polling places to root out fraud, that the media was rotten, that the election was rigged.

It's unclear whether Trump is reinforcing existing skepticism about institutions such as the media and the government or whether he's creating new strains. It's probably both. As Wonkblog's Chris Ingraham noted on Saturday, the lack of confidence in traditional institutions has spiked since 2008 — at least among Republicans.

Trump has repeatedly argued that facets of those institutions, like the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Federal Reserve, are part of the same broad-ranging effort to cause him to lose the election. A new survey from Marketplace and Edison Research indicates that a quarter of Americans agree with him. That's split heavily along political lines, though. Only about 1 in 20 Clinton supporters distrust economic data such as unemployment rates and jobs numbers. Almost half of Trump supporters distrust that data.

That dichotomy suggests that Americans live in worlds rooted in different core truths — and that's what Americans believe is happening. Pew Research asked Clinton and Trump supporters whether they thought that the two political sides agreed generally on basic facts, disagreeing only on how to address the country's problems, or whether each side relied on different basic facts entirely.

More than 80 percent of respondents said it was the latter.

That's the gulf that Trump is both widening and exploiting. It's not hard to figure out why he's happily passing around bad information at this point: The media is reporting on a number of accusations that his 2005 hot-mic comments about groping women were a reflection of what he actually did and not just “locker room talk.” The best way to get people to ignore those accusations is to double-down on their existing skepticism about the media and, ideally, to loop his opponent into that same grand conspiracy. It's not clear how this is a scenario that will propel him to victory in November, but it is clearly a strategy that might, at least, allow him to save face.

The rift in the electorate, though, may end up being a much harder problem to plaster over.

• Philip Bump writes about politics for The Fix at The Washington Post. He is based in New York City.

WAS IT his recent anti-Hillary tweet storm, childishly bashing his former rival again and again for joining Jill Stein's recount effort, the bitchy little hissy fit coming, this time, not from a boorish reality-TV imbecile, but from the imminent leader of the free world, the most powerful human on the planet, the president of these newly doomed United States — thus reconfirming Trump's grievous incapacity to “pivot” to something remotely more mature and respectable as we lurch toward apocalypse inauguration?

Stripping the division of all funding would mean the elimination of NASA's world-renowned research into temperature, ice, clouds and other climate phenomena. NASA's network of satellites provide a wealth of information on climate change, with the Earth science division's budget set to grow to $2bn next year. By comparison, space exploration has been scaled back somewhat, with a proposed budget of $2.8bn in 2017.

Bob Walker, a senior Trump campaign adviser, said there was no need for NASA to do what he has previously described as “politically correct environmental monitoring”.

What about Trump's nonsense pule that Hillary actually didn't win the popular vote (by a record 2.5 million humans, and counting), but rather, due to a completely baseless, reference-free lie he found on a racist fake news site somewhere, he actually won it, but all those millions of votes for him weren't fairly counted, even here in California?

It's all kinds of ridiculous. Except that it's not. Except, much like the mountains of fake news his numb followers believed pre-election without giving a damn for credibility, millions of his acolytes appear to believe him, based on nothing but bloviated bullshit propaganda.

Get use to it, America. — Photograph: Gerardo Mora/Getty Images.

Then there's the baffling, disturbing interview the new president-elect gave with The New York Times, bitching about an unflattering photo and pointing stubby orange fingers hither and yon and indicating, to everyone's ongoing horror, how much he hates the press and will do everything he can to mock, threaten and grope it into submission, if not outright arrest and imprisonment?

Did you enjoy the savage irony of all those Trumpsters whining about Hillary's “secret” speeches to Goldman Sachs, as Trump announces his new head of the US Treasury: one Steven Mnuchin, himself a lackey from Goldman Sachs, who has zero political experience whatsoever? What about entirely useless Ben Carson to lead HUD?

It's only bitterly amusing until you realize it's not, until you realize it's becoming quickly terrifying, akin to how the newly empowered trolls of the alt-right — AKA the KKK 2.0 — have now released their first “official” watch list, beginning with liberal professors and educators.

Did you hear? It's true: The alt-right has already begun targeting anyone who dares teach progressive or intellectually curious ideas (read: science, civil rights, environmentalism, love, breathing), often including the professors' photos, home addresses, phone numbers, and posting it all to online hate groups.

A bunch of idiot, meth-snorting racists baiting liberals from their parents' basements? Nothing new. Same inbred, sexless trolls given unexpected power and the full run of the White House? Terrorizing.

It's all capped by the devastating fact that we have somehow flipped from the most graceful, intellectually sophisticated presidency in modern history, straight to the sleaziest and most repulsively inept. It's a cruel sociopolitical whiplash that’s left us shattered, wildly destabilized, well below England on the shortlist of once-proud nations that seemed to basically have their shit together, to a suddenly unhinged totalitarian nightmare on the precipice of categorical collapse. No wonder Noam Chomsky called the GOP “the most dangerous organization in world history.”

Be very afraid!!

And oh, woe my beloved major media, beleaguered teams of talented reporters and journalists currently more shell-shocked than anyone, still trying to figure out how to cover it all and remain not merely relevant, but more indispensable than ever, all against a vicious tidal wave of manufactured, anti-media vitriol, clickbait headlines, for-profit news centers, hateful fake stories, idiot alt-right bloggers and a new president eager to destroy them entirely.

One thing is certain: Trump is doing exactly what he promised; he is very much gutting the political machinery in DC. But of course he has absolutely no intention of making it better, more dynamic, more respectable, helpful and intellectually curious, a boon to both the American experiment, and the world.

Just the opposite: your Trump-ified US government is about to hurl itself into a pit of numb violence and vicious anti-intellectualism: America has officially declared itself more paranoid, more racist, more vindictive and shrill than perhaps any time in our history.

There is zero denying it: We have gone from a deeply civilized, hugely successful, beautifully historic presidential administration marked by tremendous grace and calm wisdom, to a bullying shit-show run by a bloviated, tiny-brained reality TV man-child who doesn't give a damn about what his army of confused, poorly educated protest voters might have wanted, but very much adores all those violent, misogynist white supremacist sociopaths who would gladly lead us all into the pits of hell. What fun it shall be.

IT DOESN'T MATTER how many articles of clothing Phelan Moonsong puts on before walking out the door each day: If he's not wearing his favorite pair of goat horns, the Pagan priest might as well be naked.

Unless the 56-year-old Millinocket, Maine, man is sleeping or bathing, his beloved horns are rarely far from his scalp.

It's been that way since he first laid eyes on the horns at a Pagan men's group gathering in 2009. A friend whose goat had recently died offered the horns to group members. Nobody else wanted the dead goat's hardware; Moonsong couldn't believe his luck.

So he took the horns home, drilled small holes in each one and attached them to his forehead using stretchy, 50-pound fishing line that he wrapped around his head like an invisible skull cap.

His life was never the same.

“As a practicing Pagan minister and a priest of Pan, I've come to feel very attached to the horns, and they've become a part of me and part of my spirituality,” Moonsong said, noting that he periodically soaks the horns in patchouli and cedar oil to keep them fresh and leathery. “The horns are part of my religious attire.”

Moonsong feels so attached to his horns that he refuses to take them off for anyone — including the state of Maine. In August, Moonsong said, officials at the Bureau of Motor Vehicles in Bangor told him that he would need to remove the horns to receive a state-issued ID.

When he tried to explain to bureau employees that he is a “Priest of Pan” — one who considers the horns his “spiritual antenna” — they were not moved. They told that the horns would have to be approved by Maine's secretary of state.

“She told me that I had to send in some documentation or religious text to show why it was required for me to have my horns on,” Moonsong said. “I said, ‘Okay, I'll go ahead and do that’, but it seemed like an onerous requirement.”

Though he didn't realize it at the time, Moonsong had joined a religious freedom battle that is being fought in DMV offices around the country.

At least 30 states offer residents high levels of constitutional protection for religious expression, some of them even higher than the protection offered by the Constitution's First Amendment, according to Charles Haynes, the founding director of the Religious Freedom Center of the Newseum Institute.

“Generally speaking, even in states without a high level of protection, officials have to have a pretty good reason for saying no to a religious accommodation for a driver's license photo,” Haynes said. “How strong that reason needs to be depends on where you live.”

But it also depends on the quality of the citizen's case, Haynes said. When people argue for the right to cover their faces in a driver's license photo — such as a Muslim woman who believes it's immodest to uncover her face — states often have the upper hand because it's in the interest of the state to assist police in being able to identify people.

“However,” Haynes added, “if the person's religious garb doesn't cover the face or obstruct law enforcement, those folks are likely to win.”

The American Civil Liberties Union of Alabama has filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of a Christian woman who accuses DMV officials of discriminating against her by refusing to make a religious accommodation. Yvonne Allen says she was forced to remove her headscarf — which she wears for religious reasons — to have a photo taken for her driver's license, according to the complaint.

“When Ms. Allen explained her religious beliefs,” the complaint states, “the county officials responded with a remarkable claim: They admitted that there was a religious accommodation available for head coverings, but contended that it applied only to Muslims.”

“They also ridiculed Ms. Allen's sincerely held religious beliefs, with the Chief Clerk informing her that she was herself a Christian and did not cover her head,” the complaint adds. “Left with no choice if she wished to renew her license, Ms. Allen — with tears in her eyes and feeling sick to her stomach over the violation of her religious beliefs — removed her head covering.”

Heather L. Weaver, senior staff attorney for the ACLU's Program on Freedom of Religion and Belief, said DMV offices sometimes rule in favor of one faith and against another not because of bigotry so much as ignorance.

“Sometimes it comes down to them not understanding certain faiths,” Weaver said. “That's when we come in to educate DMV officials about particular religious headgear and explain that something is a legitimate religious belief that should be accommodated in the same way you might accommodate a Jewish yarmulke.”

Moonsong at a Pagan festival wearing his horns as well as his “goat legs” and “hoofs”. — Photograph: Courtesy of Phelan Moonsong.

Allen's case is ongoing, but Moonsong said he managed to avoid hiring a lawyer and filing a lawsuit.

After several months of waiting to hear from the state's motor vehicle office following his initial visit, he says he informed the bureau that he was in touch with the ACLU. His ID arrived in the mail days later, he says.

A spokeswoman for the Maine secretary of state told the Bangor Daily News that Moonsong had not mentioned that the horns were religious in nature during his initial BMV visit.

“He did not cite religious reasons,” said the spokeswoman, Kristen Muszynski. “There are exceptions for religious headdress.”

The newspaper reported that the state of Maine follows American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators guidelines, which state that license photos “may only show the cardholder with headgear, if the cardholder is a member of a religion requiring the wearing thereof and provided that the headgear does not present as an obstruction or present a shadow and render the portrait inadequate for the identification of the cardholder.”

Moonsong, who changed his name earlier this year, said he was “elated” with the result of his BMV battle — not only for himself but for others who quietly share some of his beliefs.

“A lot of Pagans are in the closet and — as with the LGBT crowd — there's a lot of misconceptions and discrimination that they face,” he said.

“Many practicing Pagans are afraid of being public,” Moonsong added, “but when they see my horns it reminds them it's okay to be yourself.”

There are personal benefits to having an ID as well, he noted. Though he doesn't drive, Moonsong will finally be able to use his ID to board a plane to California, where some of the best Pagan festivals are found.

“I'm very excited,” he said.

• Peter Holley is a general assignment reporter at The Washington Post.

It's a statistic almost too staggering to fathom in scope and heartbreaking desolation, yet it seems to match up shockingly well with the current emotional timbre; there are hundreds of millions fewer birds than ever before in human history, desolated fish stocks, obliterated rainforests, dwindling numbers of elephants, lions, butterflies, rhinos and iguanas and leopards, on and on, everywhere and forever, all gone and most never to return. Sorry, kids.

Kids? Oh, we have plenty of those. There are, of course, many, many more babies swarming over the planet than we have healthy capacity to feed and water and sustain, on ongoing and sort of disastrous procreative commandment driven largely by the efforts of heavily Catholic and/or violently patriarchal cultural posturing, because of course babies are God's little angels and the Lord will provide and birth control is for heathens, and who cares about all the starvation and water shortages and poverty and vicious wars over dwindling resources?

But really, why worry? The incoming Trump administration is already working hard to assure a quick and bilious doom for all. The scowling orange monster has assembled the most laughably grotesque team of the most cold-blooded demolition experts in American political history — nearly all of them rich white males with the moral compass of flesh-eating bacteria and each hell bent on undoing Obama's legacy and/or annihilating some indispensable hunk of the U.S. government, like the Department of Energy, or NASA, or the Department of the Interior, or Treasury, or nature, science, fundamental empathy.

2.9 million more votes for Hillary, and counting.

Of course it’s true. But will it make any difference? Will it save us?

Let it be hereby repeated until every Trump voter hangs his head in shame, which they never will: The Trump era is going to be a shameless, leering rape of the American dream unlike few we have ever witnessed in our short history. Odds are tremendously good we will not ever fully recover. You know, just like Jesus intended.

Even comedians are getting nervous. Hecklers are turning pro. No longer just loutish, drunken rednecks who don't get the joke, they're newly empowered defenders of ignorance, an army of mal-educated trolls who feel it's their Trump-given right to stand up and grunt their illiteracy, their sexism and their racism at the screen, the stage, the performer, this hamburger, that Starbucks cup, whatever and whomever they like, to the point of violence.

All that tact and grace, intelligence and kindness that so distinguished the Obama era? Drowned like dogs in favor of the howler monkeys of panic and white male fear. Hate is oozing into American thought-stream like acid from a rusting car battery. Noam Chomsky has it exactly right; the GOP really is the most dangerous organization in the world.

Behold this mis-shapen snapshot, one of a thousand forthcoming: It's Trump, surrounded by all the leaders of modern technology, the lords of Google and Apple, Microsoft and Amazon, Facebook and Tesla, et al (and of course, three members of Trump's own insufferable family).

And there was Trump, trying his damndest to hang, to pretend he's smart and lucid enough to actually belong in their educated, savvy, largely liberal clique, when each of them — with the exception of insufferable Trump ring-licker Peter Thiel — think the man is a tyrannical ignoramus with the mind of a frog.

LEFT: Thanks for the fake news fact-checking, Zuck. Where the hell were you two years ago? | RIGHT: With the exception ofhis own soulless lackeys, everyone at this table thinks the president-elect is a dangerous moron.

Does all this ring a bit too bleak? Possibly. Surely some good news is afoot. Surely it's mildly heartening that, say, Facebook just decided to take the epidemic of fake news seriously. Though you might also agree that it's sort of tragic they didn't choose to do so, oh, about two years ago, back when armies of trolls, neo-Nazis, Russian hackers and misogynistic thugs dredged up from the sewers of GamerGate started swarming social media and dumbing down the (older, whiter) electorate?

Perhaps you're heartened by Michael Moore's prediction that Trump will never actually make it to the Big Chair, or that some secret legal or constitutional mechanism buried somewhere in the fractured American Dream will suddenly kick in and block the Trump administration from gutting the nation like a hog?

We can certainly hope. Then again, if North Carolina just taught us anything, it's that the GOP is the biggest and most shamelessly corrupt middle finger to democracy and fundamental decency we have ever witnessed. There is, quite literally, nothing they will not do to derail progress and maintain grunting white male power.

One thing is certain: It is perilously easy to become dismayed. It is wildly tempting to say all is lost and to hell with our once-semiproud country because it turns out Obama really was our last and finest hope to stave off the demons of ignorance, of climate destruction, of moral incivility and desperation. Which is to say: History will show that Obama was extraordinary for an entirely different set of reasons than we first imagined.

Is it true? Are we running out of road, far more quickly than we can calculate? Or does hope survive in strange nooks and corners and unexpectedly successful Dakota pipeline protests? Will the backlash to Trump's intended rape of America's moral center whiplash us into a radical new awakening? Right now, anything is possible and all bets are off and it sure as hell would be nice if that felt far less terrifying than it is. Hang on if you dare.

good bye and good riddance to all those hateful george soros funded shit stirring losersand a good FU to the lamestream fake news blame it on the russians lying media

Yee Ha....that means America is DEFINITELY going to NEVER BE GREAT AGAIN.

They will officially have an IDIOT PUPPET as their PRESIDENT next month (controlled by Putin who Trump is in hock to....hence why he refuses to release his tax files which would expose this) and will therefore be the LAUGHING STOCK OF THE ENTIRE WORLD!!

oh look at me i'm wearing my big boy pants and know a big word it's one of my favorites ,intellectual it makes me sound smarter than the average bear,so ill use it a lot lol.

Your stupid lefty tribe cult members lost the us elections because people are sick of all obama and hillarys bullshitthey didn't lose because of putin hacking,"it's the economy stupid'

obama was a useless leader, he was making it hard for us people to make ends meet,he drove the us economy into the dirt taking the people with it.the only ones who did well under chairman obama were the filthy rich and the banks obama was sucking their arse.

he is such a useless petty race baiting ego centred clown obama couldn't run a corner dairyobama and hillary are war criminals who caused the death or the suffering of millions of people all throughout the middle east, by trying to overthrow nations and arming terrorist to fight proxy wars

RESIDENTS of Washington state turned their eyes to a clear blue sky on Thursday and found themselves staring at a cartoonish rendering of male genitalia, sketched in smoke by at least one Navy EA-18G Growler jet.

The image stretched hundreds of feet high over the Okanogan Highlands, based on photographs shared on social media. It has spawned a full Navy investigation, with a senior officer, Vice Admiral Mike Shoemaker, promising to examine the issue fully and respond.

“The American people rightfully expect that those who wear the Wings of Gold exhibit a level of maturity commensurate with the missions and aircraft with which they've been entrusted,” said Shoemaker, who oversees naval air operations, in a statement released by the service. “Naval aviation continually strives to foster an environment of dignity and respect. Sophomoric and immature antics of a sexual nature have no place in Naval aviation today.”

The unit involved, Electronic Attack Squadron 130 of Naval Air Station Whidbey Island, flies a two-person variant of the F/A-18 Super Hornet and specializes in electronic warfare. The aircrew responsible has not been identified.

The Defense Department has placed heightened emphasis on sexual harassment and sexual assault in the ranks. And while it's not immediately clear what this investigation will yield, it's evident that the Navy is taking it very seriously.

This is not the first time a military pilot has drawn similar images. As The Drive pointed out, a Royal Air Force jet drew what appeared to be a penis in the sky over Scotland in 2014. The RAF later concluded the suggestive smoke trails were caused by a pilot circling in a holding pattern while waiting to land.

In the United States, the Navy's elite flight demonstration squadron, the Blue Angels, also was cited in an investigation released in 2014 for painting a giant penis on the roof of a trailer at its winter training home in El Centro, Calif, where pilots could see it from above. The blue-and-gold painting was so large that it could be seen on satellite imagery available on Google Maps, the Navy found.

The Blue Angels' commanding officer at the time, Navy Captain Gregory McWherter, was reprimanded for failing to stop sexual harassment and condoning pornography and homophobia in the workplace. Investigators also cited his call sign, “Stiffy”.

“This Commanding Officer witnessed, accepted, and encouraged behavior that, while juvenile and sophomoric in the beginning, ultimately and in the aggregate, became destructive, toxic and hostile,” the Navy's report said. Under his command, the Blue Angels environment “ran counter to established Navy standards and the Uniform Code of Military Justice, and dramatically weakened good order and discipline.”

It's unclear what fate awaits the pilot in this latest incident. According to a Navy Department manual released earlier this year, incidents of sexual harassment “cover a wide range of behaviors, from verbal comments to physical acts, and can be subtle or overt.”

If the skywriting over Washington is determined to be sexual harassment aimed at someone in the same squadron, service members involved could be subject to formal counseling, negative fitness reports that hurt careers, administrative punishment, or court-martial and separation from the service.

As the photographs of the skywriting circulated online during Friday morning, more than 100 people sent stories about the incident to Maximilian Uriarte, a Marine Corps veteran who draws the popular military-themed web comic “Terminal Lance”. Drawing male genitalia is a running joke in his comic. Doing so, he said, is a way that service members joke around with one another in what is still a hyper-masculine culture.

“I don't know how much the culture of these pilots is embroiled in inappropriate things, but I think that drawing a penis is just meant to be funny,” he said. “For some reason, when you get into a situation where you need to draw something, it's always a penis.”

He paused for a second.

“I'd love to offer real insight on this,” he said. “But I don't know that there is much to be had.”

• Dan Lamothe covers the Pentagon and the U.S. military for The Washington Post. He joined the newspaper in spring 2014.

No members of Congress were seriously injured when the train carrying Republican members to their annualretreat in West Virginia collided with a dump truck Wednesday morning near Charlottesville, Virginia.

Emergency personnel work at the scene of the train crash involving a garbage truck in Crozet, Virginia. — Photograph: Crozet Volunteer Fire Department/Reuters.

CROZET, VIRGINIA — One person was killed, and six were injured when an Amtrak train carrying Republican lawmakers to an annual party conference in West Virginia hit a truck here on Wednesday morning.

None of the dozens of members of Congress aboard the train, or their accompanying family members and aides, were among the seriously injured. The person who died was one of three men in the disposal truck that had entered the railroad crossing.

The National Transportation Safety Board dispatched a team of nearly two dozen people to the site and said it would provide updates as it gathered additional information about the crash. Federal Railroad Administration officials also went to the scene to assist, a U.S. Transportation Department spokeswoman said.

The NTSB was expected to provide an update on Wednesday night.

Damage to the front of the Amtrak locomotive following a collision with a garbage truck. — Photograph: European Pressphoto Agency/Agencia-EFE/Shutterstock.

Several lawmakers, including Senator Jeff Flake (Republican-Arizona) and Representative Brad Wenstrup (Republica-Ohio), helped first responders carry one of the injured passengers to an ambulance — a role that Flake said was “too reminiscent” of the lifesaving measures they took to help House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (Republican-Louisiana) after a shooting on an Alexandria baseball field this past summer.

Officials at the University of Virginia Medical Center said six patients were transported there from the crash. One was reported to be in critical condition, four were being evaluated, and one had been discharged Wednesday evening, according to hospital officials.

Representative Jason Lewis (Republican-Minnesota) was among those taken to a hospital as a precaution. A spokesman for the congressman said he suffered a concussion and was treated and released.

The crash cast a somber tone on the GOP's long-planned huddle at the Greenbrier resort in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia. The retreat would carry on “with an adjusted program,” organizers said on Wednesday. President Trump is scheduled to address the group on Thursday.

“The president has been fully briefed on the situation in Virginia and is receiving regular updates,” White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said. “Our thoughts and prayers are with everyone that has been affected by this incident.”

Emergency first responders carry one of the injured across train tracks to an ambulance. — Photograph: Crozet Volunteer Fire Department/Reuters.

The crash occurred about 11:20 a.m. at a rural railroad crossing in Crozet, about 110 miles southwest of Washington. The train was carrying about 450 people.

Representative Tom Cole (Republican-Oklahoma) said it happened without warning while many members were milling around on the 10-car train. There was no perceptible braking before the crash, he said.

“It was quite a jolt,” Cole said. “It was just, ‘bam’.”

“It was a hard impact,” Flake recalled. “It threw everybody up in the air a little.”

Emergency personnel are seen after the collision between a passenger train and a garbage truck. — Photograph: Zack Wajsgras/Daily Progress/Associated Press.

Passengers watch as emergency personnel work at the scene of a train crash. — Photograph: Zack Wajsgras/Daily Progress/Associated Press.

Senator Mike Lee (Republican-Utah), who was reached by telephone aboard the train, said it took about a quarter-mile for it to stop, and a few of the passengers in his car were “roughed up.”

“Most of us hit a knee or a head on the seat in front of us, but nothing too serious on board,” he said.

The crash was “loud and surprising,” said Representative Thomas Massie (Republican-Kentucky). “We saw debris go by the left side of the train. The part of the truck we [could] see was decimated. Very relieved when the train came to a stop and [was] still on the tracks.”

Outside the car, the truck looked as if it had been cut in half, Lee said. Garbage blanketed the grass. And it was clear that the people inside the truck had fared worse.

Immediately after the crash, Cole said, many members who are also doctors tried to leave the train to help the three men who were on the disposal truck. Security officials on the train discouraged them from getting off, he said, but several members did, including Wenstrup, Senator Bill Cassidy (Republican-Louisiana) and Representatives Michael C. Burgess (Republican-Texas), Phil Roe (Republican-Tennessee) and Roger Marshall (Republican-Kanas).

“They were very insistent,” Cole said. “Anybody who had any [medical] training was moving quickly.”

Roe, a retired OB/GYN, said it was immediately clear one of the men was deceased. “I think it was an instantaneous death,” he told reporters on Wednesday evening. “I don't think he suffered.”

The wife of one lawmaker — Kathryn Bucshon, an anesthesiologist — tried to intubate the other injured man to maintain an airway. She was unsuccessful, but Wenstrup, a former Army combat surgeon, said the man's instinctive resistance was a positive sign: “That showed us that there was a chance because he was bucking it.”

Among those on the train, the lawmakers said, was Brian P. Monahan, the attending physician to the U.S. Congress, and the Reverend Patrick J. Conroy, the House chaplain. Monahan helped attend to the injured men, Roe said, and Conroy administered last rites to the deceased man, according to Burgess.

The railroad crossing arm is lowered next to the scene of the collision. — Photograph: Zack Wajsgras/Daily Progress/Associated Press.

Vickie Gresge, a resident of the Grayrock neighborhood where the crash occurred, said she heard the jarring sound — “like a big metal crash; very, very heavy” — and looked out the window to see a cloud of dust near the tracks. She rushed up Lanetown Road, took in the trash strewn about the tracks, then spotted the people emerging from the train.

“When the train doors opened, out of every door, a military-style person with an automatic gun,” Gresge said. “It made me think there were dignitaries on the train — which, apparently, there are.”

“Before the ambulances arrived, there were two helicopters circling,” she said.

Gresge had her son beckon a neighbor, a nurse, who then administered CPR to one of two victims lying on the ground. She said a third man, wearing a reflective vest, was walking around.

The truck belonged to Time Disposal, according to a neighborhood resident and confirmed by a county spokeswoman.

“It's fresh, and we're trying to get a hold of it,” said a man answering the phone for Time Disposal. He said a team of company officials was headed to the scene.

After the crash, the lead car of the train, which derailed slightly, was uncoupled from the other cars and will remain on the scene for investigators to assess. The rest of the train carried members of Congress and the other passengers back to Charlottesville Union Station, where they continued to Greenbrier via bus.

According to the Congressional Institute, the GOP retreat will continue with a modified program, which will now include a moment of prayer for those involved in the crash and a security briefing from the sergeant at arms and U.S. Capitol Police.

Burgess, the Texas congressman, said he was “very conflicted” about continuing with the event, but he said the decision by Trump and Vice President Pence to appear put the decision in a different light.

“This is part of our job,” he said. “It is part of our planning process. It is part of how we approach our entire year, so it is important work that's going to be done…. If the vice president's going to be there tonight, I better be there, too.”

House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (Republican-Wisconsin) called the incident a “terrible tragedy.” He wrote on Twitter: “We are grateful for the first responders who rushed to the scene and we pray for the victims and their families. May they all be in our thoughts right now.”

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (Republican-Kentucky) said in a statement that he was “deeply saddened” by the crash.

“My condolences, and those of the entire Senate family, go out to the victim's family, friends, and coworkers,” McConnell said. “Our prayers are with the other accident victims who are fighting to recover from their injuries.”

Wednesday's crash was Amtrak's second high-profile wreck in less than two months, a fact that partly prompted D.C. Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton (Democrat) to call for a congressional hearing on the state of rail safety in the United States.

“The public needs information and assurances on the safety of rail travel before the lengthy NTSB investigation on today's accident, along with other ongoing NTSB investigations, such as last year's Amtrak fatal derailment outside of Seattle, concludes,” Norton said. “We provided Amtrak with significant funding…. We need to know whether more is needed to address rail safety now.”

The segment of tracks where the crash occurred is owned by CSX Transportation but is leased to Buckingham Branch Railroad — the company that “is responsible for maintenance, signaling and dispatching train traffic on the line,” a CSX spokesman said.

Carrie Brown, a spokeswoman for Buckingham Branch Railroad, said in a statement that the company's personnel were assisting at the scene.

“Our thoughts and prayers are with the passengers, motorists and crew members impacted by this,” Brown said.

The wreckage of the truck at the collision scene. — Photograph: Zack Wajsgras/Daily Progress/Associated Press.

Emergency personnel move an injured person to an ambulance near the scene of the collision. — Photograph: Zack Wajsgras/Daily Progress/Associated Press.

The crash occurred in a rural area at Route 684 and Lanetown Road in Crozet, at what is known as an “active crossing” involving gates, flashing lights and a “hump” warning sign for approaching drivers. The crossing's speed limit for trains is 60 mph, according to Federal Railroad Administration data.

The thoroughfare runs parallel to the railroad on both sides with a sharp curve into the raised crossing. The direction from which the truck was approaching was not immediately known.

Christine Stewart, who has lived near the crossing for nine years, said she hasn't seen anyone get stuck there — but has seen people try to speed through the closed crossing gates.

“It's not unusual for people to try to cut through, even when a train is coming,” Stewart said. “A lot of times, it's just a big coal train that moves slowly and people don't want to get stuck waiting. When it's a passenger train, it goes much faster.”

The Virginia Department of Transportation, which oversees grade crossings at public highways, said there have been three reported crashes within 250 feet of the crossing since 2007. Wednesday's was the first to involve a train or result in injury, VDOT spokeswoman Shannon Marshall said. In 2016, the driver of a pickup truck hit the crossing gate and fled, Marshall said. Also that year, a distracted driver ran off the road to avoid workers about 100 feet from the crossing.

Almost two decades ago, on February 5th, 1999, an incident similar to Wednesday's crash occurred at the same crossing, according to Railroad Administration documents. A CSX freight train traveling 30 mph struck a vehicle in the crossing. The driver of the vehicle was not inside, and no one was harmed. The train engine was damaged, a report noted.

The brown tabby has racked up thousands of dollars in fines while allegedly roaming her Bellevue neighborhood.

“The infractions, they just keep piling up,” said her attorney, Jon Zimmerman.

She even did hard time in King County's “kitty jail”.

Now she's turning to Pierce County to have her day in court.

Owner Anna Danieli has filed a lawsuit against Regional Animal Services of King County (RASKC), alleging the agency has unfairly targeted the 10-year-old cat as a “vicious”, trespassing animal.

“… of the approximately 20,000 infractions filed by RASKC over a ten-year period, approximately 50 involved cats, and most of these infractions involved Miska,” says the complaint, filed on April 12 in Pierce County Superior Court rather than King County because the suit is against a King County agency.

When he ran the agency, former RASKC Manager Gene Mueller “pursued Miska like no other cat in Bellevue and King County” because the cat lived in his neighborhood, the lawsuit alleges.

The agency declined to comment, as did its current manager and Mueller. A RASKC spokesperson said they do not comment on pending litigation.

The lawsuit names them, and a list of Bellevue and King County officials.

Danieli also declined to be interviewed.

The lawsuit says she wants a Pierce County judge to void Miska's violations and to keep RASKC from prosecuting Miska in front of the King County Hearing Examiner. It also asks that RASKC's determination that Miska is “vicious” be voided, as well as any removal orders by Mueller or the acting RASKC manager.

Many of Miska's violations have been for trespassing, Zimmerman said.

“… to target one individual cat and go: ‘Well, that cat has to be removed from the fresh air and being outside and anytime that it might slip off the property that somehow there’s some sort of nexus between viciousness and it being outside’, it's just really ridiculous,” he said.

Some of her violations are for being a “vicious animal at large”, according to a partial list of alleged transgressions filed with the lawsuit.

Asked about Miska's demeanor, Zimmerman said: “Miska is a normal 10-year-old cat. She is very loving. She is social. She is friendly. She is intelligent, and she is really an excellent feline companion.”

In one complaint Zimmerman obtained, a neighbor called Miska “beautiful but predatory” and said she'd been taunting the neighbor's cats at the window. That complaint also called Miska an “exotic cat” and a “cheetah”.

Zimmerman said it's fair to classify Miska as a domestic brown tabby. He said it wouldn't be fair to turn her into an indoor cat.

“I think that this is somebody who has had the freedom to be outside for a long time,” he said.

The attorney said Miska was able to roam legally in Bellevue when she was born, but the law changed at some point.

“Bellevue is not a right-to-roam city for cats,” he said.

According to the lawsuit, Danieli started getting violations for Miska's behavior in 2014 and has received at least 30 since. The county has assigned at least four prosecutors to the cat.

“RASKC Manager Gene Mueller determined that Miska was ‘vicious’ and, in pursuit of his desire to separate Miska from Danieli and Miska's family, Manager Mueller signed an order to have Miska euthanized or deported from King County” in 2014, the lawsuit says.

Danieli fought that order, and it was vacated in King County Superior Court.

“However, unbeknownst to Danieli at the time, and while she was fighting for Miska in Superior Court, Manager Mueller was continuing to take official action against Danieli and Miska based on his own personal vendetta by filing his own complaints against Miska as one of Danieli's neighbors,” the lawsuit says.

In 2017, “RASKC personnel encouraged another of Danieli's neighbors to file one or more complaints against Miska for purported trespassing on a neighbor's property.”

RASKC helped trap Miska and took her to its animal control facility.

She was there for several months, until she made bail — RASKC ultimately agreed to release Miska as long as Danieli paid kenneling fees.

“Danieli felt she was in a hostage situation because she continued to suffer during RASKC's imposed family separation,” the lawsuit says. “For example, RASKC denied Danieli visitation rights and Miska was suffering by RASKC's isolation of Miska to solitary confinement.”

Ultimately, Miska's case ended up before the King County hearing examiner, who Danieli argues does not have jurisdiction.

The Bellevue City Code says the King County Board of Appeals is where a case goes when someone contests a violation from RASKC.

But that board stopped hearing such cases in 2016, and since then they've gone to the hearing examiner.

Since Bellevue City Code hadn't been changed to reflect that, Danieli argues the hearing examiner does not have jurisdiction over the city's animal enforcement cases and that Miska's violations should be voided.

A Bellevue spokesperson said the city's attorneys are reviewing the lawsuit and did not have further comment before Wednesday.

• Alexis Krell covers local, state and federal court cases that affect Pierce County for The Tacoma News Tribune. She started covering courts in 2016. Before that she wrote about crime and breaking news for almost four years as The News Tribune's night reporter.